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Giant inflatable rats are so passe

Adam Castiglioni reports union workers protesting the use of non-union staff to remodel the Copley Square Hotel have ditched the traditional giant inflatable rat for a giant inflatable bedbug:

Giant bedbug
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Get even, union workers: Get your hands on a residential property and AirBnb it. I'd stay there instead of at the Copley Square Hotel any day, because they're probably overpriced, like all hotels.

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I'm sure those service workers have the $100k kicking around for down payment needed for a $500,000 loan to buy a unit for the purposes of AirBNB.

Just between us, how many units are you listing now?

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Their (expletive) accountant? I don't know how much money people have.

EDIT: They have money to buy an inflatable bedbug to protest someone else getting hired for a job over them. If they need money badly enough to keep working, why are they buying inflatable bedbugs?

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My sympathy for the union only extends so far but you can't honestly be suggesting that the fact the union is able to buy an inflatable bedbug with $25/week dues is the same as someone being able to afford a condo or townhouse in the area for the purposes of supplemental rental income.

AirBNB dedicated rentals are a way for the rich to park their money while still earning cash. It's not the way for someone with a small bank account to earn a living.

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The rich buy too many of them and go belly-up. Leisure travel is finite.

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The rich are buying up all the inflatable bedbugs!

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You do realize that the whole Union, most likely with dozens and dozens of affiliates, most likely has ONE giant bedbug that they use. It is also possible that multiple unions pool their resources and have a whole inflatable army of rats and bedbugs ready to go depending on the need.

I just looked at the prices online, for less than $1,500 you can get a giant rat or cat or other being. That's just one stimulus check

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"just one stimulus check"? I know its not a zillion dollars- but that/ UI are still a lifeline for a lot of people after a year of the pandemic-cratered economy

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how unions work or what their central purpose is: to guarantee safe working conditions and decent wages for their members.

sorry, contrary to what you and a million other poli sci freshmen gentlemen think, not everything can be solved by anarcho-capitalism, which itself generates plenty of problems.

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I don’t think it means what you think it means

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I wouldn't pay more than 90 bucks a night. And I don't, thanks to AirBnb.

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If the margins on what it takes to run a hotel are too slim, the hotel won't be in business at all. The nerve that a hotel would set their prices to stay in business. Not overpriced.

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Overvalued*

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As the unregulated hotel rooms flood the market more people are camping on sidewalks all across america.

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Because homelessness only became a problem at the precise moment that someone started a company which allows people to make their own money instead of being dependent on employers and government.

If I'm going to thank somebody, it's going to be suburban NIMBY jerkoffs who pass zoning laws and voted against Liz Warren in a primary 16 months after re-electing her.

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At least in the greater Boston area

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Making my point.

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unregulated hotels do not serve the citizens of the commonwealth. $90 hotel rooms is not worth people camping on the sidewalks.

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Like there's some open spaces in hotels with all the competition. Perhaps the homeless could live there.

I hope our homeless are better behaved than the transient folks who have been placed in my friend's motel in Vermont. Maybe fix that bridge to Long Island and build microhouses on it. Maybe next time 2008 happens, we attach some strings to the bailout that we hand to the entities who own the houses.

Everyone sucks.

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seems like you are making a good argument for zoning and regulation.

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I want for shelter to get built whether government and neighbors like it or not.

Nor am I really arguing for regulation...but if government is ever going to hand out 13 figures to Wall Street again, at a bare-ass minimum, I expect it to be provisional upon no unrented/unsold shelter sitting vacant to the exclusion of housing a homeless person/family.

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you are just arguing for the sake of arguing now.

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The battle cry of my intellectual inferiors.

You could have simply ignored me rather than virtue signal your loss of interest in the debate.

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attacking every reply from both sides of your stance is not a coherent argument

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So, what is your point?

Being the libertarian you are, I guess you don't believe in zoning?
Build anything anywhere?

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I've determined that zoning has no place in civilized society.

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So, nice middle class neighborhood with families, kids, dogs.
Guy decides to put an auto body shop right there.
No problem, right?

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You can walk home after you drop your car to be serviced.

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And that's generally how things work.

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So lets assume there are no AirBNB laws. You can put any unit you want to AirBNB.

So you decide to buy this condo in Roxbury (selected at random) at asking price of $590,000.

You put 20% down ($118,000) to get a good mortgage. We'll assume you have the $118k in the bank collecting dust. You get a mortgage for $472,000 @ 3% so your monthly payment is about $2,000/month.

But you also need to account for insurance and taxes, so your monthly payment is $3,000 or about $100/night. PLUS, you also need to pay for utilities + internet. And you have a few thousand a year for improvements and upkeep. So let's say your real monthly cost is $3500 which is around $120/night.

AirBNB takes what, 25%? So in order to break even just for rent and upkeep you need to list the unit for about $170/night. You still haven't paid yourself, you're just covering basic costs.

You can get hotel rooms cheaper than that in Boston.

So maybe you list it at $400/night so you actually make some money. But you no longer have that $118,000 in the bank and you're probably not going to be renting it every single night.

See, That's is the reason why "normal" people don't invest in AirBNB units. It makes no sense unless you're already wealthy.

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Now let's say you're already the landlord of a 3 unit building. Your mortgage from 2005 is 1/2 paid off and the two other units cover all the costs. Suddenly renting the 3rd unit for $300/night is easy money. But you own a 3-family building so you probably are already wealthy. The only thing you've done is removed a possible rental unit from the market.

Once again, that's how AirBNB mostly helps people who are already rich.

BONUS: If you can rent a place for $2000 and put a few rooms on AirBNB that's a way to make some money but the building owner is going to be wisen to this and will probably evict you for violating a standard clause in the lease.

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Which gets restored when the guy with the 590K condo fails at being a hotelier.

Otherwise, that's a terrific explanation.

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not for a couple of years actually. Meanwhile the building association can't afford to maintain the property because all the absent owners are negotiating bankruptcy.

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Does it have a union label?

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You know it doesn't... it was probably made in China...

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and it will last you through many, many strikes.

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Because what's the internet for, if not to pick nits (to reference yet another variety of insect vermin) - I will point out that that appears to be a giant inflatable flea, not a bedbug. Note the long hind legs for jumping.

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I believe that is flea. Much easier on the eyes than the rat, who my friends and I affectionately called Scabby.

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That's great. Advertising that there are bedbugs in the hotel mattresses!!

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They're trying to drive business away from the hotel until they accede to the union demands. Pretty standard negotiating tactic.

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